Although Swofford show like the change in image there is a character that does. He goes by Fowler and happens to be the one guy in the entire platoon everyone hates. In the war Fowler barely even fired a shot(he did kill a camel though) but claimed to be a spectacular war hero. We get to see Fowler's public image in an event after the war. Anthony goes to a bar one night and sees Fowler telling a group of people one of his "war stories". Which are of course, complete bull. He claims to have fought hand to hand with four "ragheads" after running out of ammo during a fire fight in which he killed several of their commrades. Then he takes out his bayonet and stabs some Iraqis. Fowler actually was a Headquarters and Support Company police sergant and he was assigned to had out toilet paper. When Anthony sees him telling his story, he can't beleive the people listening are actually falling for Fowler's charade. So Public image is extremely exagerrated in this case and Fowler is ashamed of what he actually did in the war so he feels that he has to lie to keep his pride and dignity.
"Mr Cool" to "Total Fool"